Impossible Creatures: All Roads Lead Home
by ChestnutBrumby
Summary: Rex Chance doesn't know what he's searching for, but Dr. Lucy Willing knows what she's lost... our IC heros are back!
1. Chapter 1

Impossible Creatures: All Roads Lead Home

Chapter 1

"Your blood, your fire, your kiss goodnight, your words, and touch, they might be mine, I feel this love could cross the sand, I want to feel that way." - Golden State

**Kenya, Africa **

**September 4th 1938**

Lucy looked into a set of brown eyes and found herself searching. At first she didn't know what she was looking for, and she didn't want to admit to herself that whatever it was might not be found in the man before her. She thought her hands might be shaking, and a brief thought tumbled through her mind - she hoped he didn't notice.

What events had let up to this moment? Sometimes it felt like a dream they'd gone through, the events of Isla Variatas that had unfolded over a year ago now. Other times, the memories were too strong - too raw to concentrate on.

And sometimes, they simply wouldn't let Lucy's Willing rational side win out.

"I've been waiting a long time for this." The voice was soft, matching the brown eyes still focused on her with a great intensity. He was leaning in - at any second now his lips would meet hers. But Lucy knew in a moment of clarity - or perhaps she'd always known - she couldn't go through with it.

"Jerry..." She pulled back, his hand slipped off her shoulder and a look of surprise crossed his face. He hadn't sensed Lucy's indecision, knew nothing of the flood of memories that anchored her to the past.

"What's wrong?" He asked, concern in his eyes. They weren't even the right colour, really, she thought miserably. The eyes she wanted were light in colour - flecked with gold and green - but so deep she could loose herself in them. She was where she wanted to be... just not with the right man.

"Oh, I'm sorry Jerry." She touched the back of his hand in apology. "It's just... I can't go through with this. You're my boss... I shouldn't be here - I have to go. I'm sorry."

Jerry scratched the back of his head, looking hurt and baffled. What had come over her?

The nights in the Kenyan wildlife preserve were chilly and Lucy hadn't dressed warmly enough, having expected to have been headed back to her tent a lot earlier. But then Jerry - charming, confident, self-assured Jerry - had asked her into his much more lavish quarters for a drink, and she had known then what was coming. Yes, Jerry respected her as a research scientist, but he had no made secret of his feelings from the beginning. This was no congenial meeting over brandies and business banter. Jerry had considered this a date - and here she went, running out on him like a scared gazelle.

Lucy wrapped her arms around herself for warmth as she veered towards her tend, guided by the beaming light of the stars and moon. Out here in this remote corner of African wilderness, there were no city lights to bounce back the natural light, and the sky seemed vast and brilliant.

Cold as she was Lucy found herself lingering out in the night. Why hadn't she stayed with Jerry? That didn't require much thought. She knew very well why she'd run off on him. Jerry was smooth talking, he knew how to make a woman feel special and went out of his way to accommodate Lucy. He was handsome, taller than she was, wiry but muscled, like a cheetah. His quick smile and warm eyes certainly had won over many a woman in his time, but Lucy knew now she wasn't going to be the next. Because for all his good points...

Jerry was not Rex. Jerry wasn't the one she wanted.

"Damn you Rex Chance." She breathed as the shadowy wall of her tent came into sight. She looked up at the stars, wondering which part of the sky looked down upon Rex, wherever he had wound up. She ducked her head under the entrance, zipping the both the insect netting and tough fabric layer closed behind her. Her eye strayed to her pile of cable messages, on a corner of her desk between a research paper on lion hunting habits and a bunch of photos she and one of the guides had taken over the previous few days.

Nothing. No word from Rex. Of course, how would he know she had taken this research job in Africa? It had seemed like a fresh start to Lucy when she applied for the job. She had to do something to keep herself busy after all, and she hadn't been without a job since leaving home after her parents died, years ago now. She had been surprised by Jerry though. The advertised head of the expedition was a businessman named 'Jerrord' which Lucy had considered the name of an sixty-year-old man. When 'Jerrord' introduced himself as Jerry, which he insisted Lucy, all the other staff working on the research project call him, she hadn't known what to make of him. Camp gossip soon informed her that the young man had been left a small family fortune which with his own business intellect, he had doubled within a year. She had no idea why Africa and it's wild animals interested him, but she didn't need the incentive to come to the country. She had always wanted to visit the still-wild land, and she was allowed a lot of free reign with her research projects here. Jerry was generous, as much with time and equipment as with money. But when he made his interest in Lucy known so quickly, she had been quick to make excuses, to him, and to herself. For months she had put him off, knowing she'd given her heart away already. But time passed. The days, busy with safari expeditions, collecting samples, tracking, and learning basic Swahili so she could communicate with the native Kenyan guides, flew by. It was Christmas before she knew it - not that it meant much to Lucy, since she had no family to send presents to, and nobody to spend the holiday with. The only present she wanted never came, and she felt childish that she had held out so much hope he might surprise her for Christmas. Then New Years, as if she hadn't learned the first time.

He didn't call.

He didn't write.

He didn't contact her at all until, months later, she despaired he ever would. She understood what he'd sacrificed - after all, she'd been there too. And she respected his space... but why couldn't he let her know that he was all right? When he was ready, she wanted to be there for him, be the comforting and stablizing presence that he'd once been for her.

Time stilled for none. Lucy found her resistance to Jerry's advances crumbling until tonight she'd agreed to meet him for drinks. But now she'd learned that she still couldn't let go of her past.

Hanging her head, she stood among a year's worth of research on the climate, animals and landscape of Africa, her heart a million miles away.

* * *

**A/N - So here we go with the next instalment! I decided to call this one 'All Roads Lead Home' because of the song by that name sung by Golden State, which is one of the many things that remind me of Lucy and Rex :) **


	2. Chapter 2

Impossible Creatures: All Roads Lead Home

Chapter 2

"A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away." - Eudora Welty

**Mount Taishan, China**

**September 14th, 1938**

Rex Chance pulled his fur-lined jacket closer around him with a shiver. The mountainous region of China was very cold, with a sharp headwind whistling dully in his ears and occasionally sending scatterings of snow to sting his exposed face. But he continued to set up his hide, folding sprays of bamboo foliage around for camouflage. He was methodical and thorough, having learned in his past months photographing wildlife that the best behaviour - unmodified, natural behaviours that his sponsors wanted photos of - usually out only when there were no signs of humans in the near vicinity.

He settled down to wait, listing for the chirps, grunts, and barklike squeal of the Giant Pandas that were his focus today. Moving nearly silently, and almost completely automatically, he checked his camera and equipment. He could hear no sounds of the sherpas who had guided him up the mountain, and that pleased him. He didn't want them scaring off his subjects, but as well as that, Rex preferred to be alone.

As he lay down to get the best angle of the cleaning ahead, he felt a brush of metal against his chest. He hesitated for a moment, then, moving slowly, closed his fingers around the chain and pulled a pocket watch from under his shirt. His thumb automatically touched the catch to release the two halves, and as it always was, his eye was drawn by the photo in the upper half. It had taken him an age to locate, tacked on to one of her more well-known research papers. Thought it had been taken several years before he met her, she looked exactly the same. It was in black and white, but he needed only to close her eyes to see the flash of red hair and the bright green eyes.

He gently caressed the photo with a fingertip, then reluctantly closed the watch and slid it back into place, feeling it settle just over his heart. His ears and nose told him his animal subjects were approaching, and he raised his camera half-heartedly. It wasn't really where he wanted to be... but he had a job.

Rex felt a faint stirring of pride when he saw his name underneath photographs in print. He used to get the same feeling, though with a far greater intensity, when a story of his was published. With a sigh, he picked up the papers and magazines, leafing through pages and trying to summon the same sort of enthusiasm for his work he once had. But it was long ago, and no longer able to grasp the emotion, which frustrated him. In a split second his tension boiled over, became action, and his fist bunched and slammed into the tabletop. It cracked cleanly down the middle and send the photos fluttering to the ground. Rex backed off, his body tensed for action.

Where had _that _come from? It was as if there was some unseen danger that his instincts wanted him to respond to. But there was nothing dangerous near his small cabin, cherry blossoms almost scarlet in the light of the setting sun outside. This place was peaceful... and beautiful. He wised he had Lucy with him. She would like it here.

He'd been here a few weeks now. It was a serene life, and it reflected in both the land and the people. Even the wildlife, one of the primary reasons Rex had been sent here, showed little fear of humans. It made his job easy, but sometimes he worried that was part of his problem. It was _too _easy. And with only a limited amount of the people around him able to understand English, Rex found himself lonelier than when on his prior assignments. Which always lead his thoughts in the same direction...

Photography seemed like the most reasonable career option, something that he already had the contacts for, even some experience. It would allow him to travel, and he had hoped at the time, fulfil the restlessness he felt had pulled him away from Lucy. But he now questioned his own motives, or maybe hadn't had any to begin with.

"What are you doing here, Rex?" He muttered to himself. "Where are you going to find the answers when you're not even sure what the question is?"


End file.
